1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a column shift lever device operatively connected to an automatic transmission of a motor vehicle, and more particularly to such a column shift lever device supported by a steering column having a tiltable upper portion with a steering wheel fixed at its upper end.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
There is known a column shift lever device which has a shift lever, and a tubular control shaft to which the shift lever is connected and which extends substantially in parallel with a steering column. The control shaft is supported at its axially opposite end portions by the steering column.
Where the conventional column shift lever device is mounted on the steering column of a type which has a tiltable upper portion for supporting a steering wheel so that the position of the steering wheel is adjustable in the running direction of the vehicle, a support member for connecting the upper end portion of the control shaft to the steering column must be located below the tiltable upper portion of the steering column. In this case, the column shift lever device must be considerably modified from that used with a non-tiltable steering column, and the required operating angle of the shift lever tends to be large.
To solve the above problems, there has been developed a column shift lever device as disclosed in laid-open Publication Nos. 63-15229 and 63-16932 of unexamined Japanese Utility Model Applications. The disclosed column shift lever device is fixedly attached to the steering column by means of a bracket disposed therebetween, such that a portion of the bracket passes through a relatively large aperture formed through a tubular control shaft of the column shift lever device. In this case, however, the control shaft suffers from low rigidity owing to the presence of the relatively large aperture.
In the conventional column shift lever device linked to an automatic transmission having a plurality of operating positions including forward and reverse drive positions, the shift lever is operated by a vehicle driver for placing the lever in a selected one of a plurality of shift positions, so as to establish a desired one of the operating positions of the transmission. This operation of the shift lever by the driver is affected by means of a detent device installed in an engine room of the vehicle, so that the shift lever is suitably locked into and released from the currently selected shift position. To eliminate the space of the engine room occupied by the detent device, it is proposed to position such a detent device on a portion of the column shift lever device which is located within the driver's compartment. In this case, however, the control shaft must be provided with a hole or an aperture or the like, which also results in lowering the rigidity of the column shift lever device.